Charity since 1900 - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
General Material Designation
[Article]
First Statement of Responsibility
Benthall, Jonathan
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Leiden
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Brill
GENERAL NOTES
Text of Note
(1,621 words)
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Charity (or philanthropy) has always been an important aspect of Islam, dating back to the principles of zakāh (mandatory alms) and ṣadaqa (optional charitable giving) set out in the Qurʾān and of waqf (pious endowment) traced back to the life of the prophet Muḥammad. Many Muslims discharge their zakāh obligations by giving privately to individuals whom they know, but Islamic charity took on new institutional forms throughout the twentieth century, culminating in the growth, since the 1970s, of "Islamic NGOs" (non-governmental organisations), whose expansion was curbed, in many regions,